I am often asked “what is your favorite natural dye?” – besides indigo. That is hard to answer – I love them all.

One of my favorites though is Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), a scale insect that produces Carminic Acid, known as Natural Red 4, or Carmine, it is used to color textiles, foods and cosmetics. It is my understanding that the insect ingests the juices of the Nopal cactus (its host) these ingested juices then mix with the insect’s stomach acid to produce carminic acid.